Dyett v. Central Trust Co.

19 N.Y.S. 19, 46 N.Y. St. Rep. 615, 64 Hun 635
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedMay 13, 1892
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 19 N.Y.S. 19 (Dyett v. Central Trust Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dyett v. Central Trust Co., 19 N.Y.S. 19, 46 N.Y. St. Rep. 615, 64 Hun 635 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1892).

Opinion

O’Brien, J.

This is an action in ejectment, commenced by the plaintiff in 1888, to recover possession of one undivided twenty-fourth part of a lot and building No. 194 Broadway, in the city of New "York. The plaintiff claims as one of the heirs at law of Jessie Ann Dyett, and seeks to invalidate the title acquired in 1849 by respondents’ predecessor in title. These premises have been a fruitful source of litigation for 70 years, and, though in various forms many of the questions here involved have been the subject of judicial inquiry, the precise question upon which the rights of the parties are to be determined has never been directly adjudicated. Chapman v. Hammersley, 4 Wend. 175; Wells v. Chapman, 4 Sandf. Ch. 312; Coal Co. v. Dyett, 7 Paige, 9; Warner v. Hoffman, 4 Edw. Ch. 383; Warner v. Dyett, 2 Edw. Ch. 497.

Upon the facts but little or no dispute exists, there being but a portion of one of the findings of fact contained in the decision of the judge below which is brought in question. But as these facts are voluminous, and admirably condensed in the briefs submitted, we have, so far as it was necessary to [20]*20present the questions to be discussed upon this appeal, taken abstracts therefrom.

The leading facts established at the trial were as follows: Jessie Ann Hunt, born December 22,1799, intermarried with Joshua Dyett prior to September 19, 1821, and when she was about 20 years of age. Before and at the time of her marriage she was seised in fee and possessed of the premises No. 194 Broadway, in the city of New York, described in the complaint. This property had come to her from her maternal grandfather, who had acquired it in 1769. Marriage articles dated September 21,1819, were entered into before the marriage between Jessie Ann Hunt and Joshua Dyett, her intended husband, and William Hammersley and Michael Dyett, as trustees, by which the premises No. 194 Broadway were conveyed to the trustees for her benefit, upon certain trusts therein declared. Afterwards, on September 19,1821,, Mrs. Dyett having come of age, and for the purpose of curing defects and mistakes in the marriage articles, a deed of trust was executed between the same parties. This deed of trust is set forth in full in the third finding of fact. It recites the main provisions of the marriage articles, and that “the said Jessie Ann Dyett hath attained to the age of twenty-one years, and is desirous, by and with the consent of the said husband,' of curing the defects and mistakes in the trusts contained in the aforesaid articles, and of conveying, granting, settling, and assuring the aforesaid messuage and lot of land, or the proceeds thereof, according to what was originally intended, and as such intention is hereafter expressed.” It then proceeds to declare the trusts on which the premises are conveyed to be as follows: First. To sell and convey the premises with the written consent of the husband and wife, and to, invest the proceeds of the sale in other real estate, or upon security, and with power to change the investments from time to time, with the like written consent, so as to produce the best annual income, without lessening the principal of the estate. Secondly. To permit the husband to receive the rents and profits for the use of himself and wife, and, if he survived her, to receive the same to his own use during life, to enable him to educate and maintain the children of the marriage, if there should be any, and, if there were no children, then to his own use forever. Thirdly. In case of the husband’s death, leaving his wife surviving, then to permit her to receive the rents, profits, and income to her own use for life, and to enable her to maintain the children of the marriage, and, if no children, then to her own use forever; and if there should be children, or the issue of such children, of the marriage, living at the death of the wife, then to their use forever. A further provision was contained in the deed of settlement that the husband should not alien or dispose of the rents or income, but should apply the same to the common use of himself and wife, and that the same should not be made liable for the payment of his debts; and in ease of his making any sale or other disposition of such rents or income, or of his becoming insolvent, the rents, issues, interest, and profits of the estate should be paid over by the trustees to the wife, to her sole and separate use, and in like manner as if she were a feme salé.

. On April 8, 1822, less than eight months after the making of the deed, the trustees Hammersley and Chapman petitioned the court of chancery for leave to mortgage the trust premises, and obtained two orders, made by Chancellor Kent, April 8 and April 22, 1822, authorizing such mortgages to be made, with the written consent of Joshua Dyett and Jessie Ann, his wife, the proceeds to be held subject, in every particular, to the trust declared by the trust-deed. Two mortgages were accordingly made, one to the North River Insurance Company, to secure $9,000 and interest, and another to James W. Stephens, to secure $15,000 and interest. The proceeds of these mortgage loans were used by the trustees, Hammersley and Chapman, in the purchase of a factory in Dutchess county, called the “Dutchess Cotton Factory,” as a [21]*21change of investment. Joshua Dyett was placed in charge of the factory as agent. In 1827 Dyett became insolvent.

In February, 1831, William Hammersley, then sole trustee, and Mr. and Mrs. Dyett, presented a petition to the chancellors for authority on their consent to borrow $18,000 on the house and lot in question and give a mortgage therefor, and an order was made to that effect. This order recited the two previous mortgages, and the new mortgage was to be given to pay off the two old ones. In April, 1831, Mr. and Mrs. Dyett, in writing, authorized Hammersley to execute the mortgage for $18,000 to the Globe Insurance Company, and thereupon the trustee and Mr. and Mrs. Dyett borrowed the $18,000 from that company, and executed a mortgage therefor on the property. In December, 1831, the mortgagee foreclosed the mortgage, and obtained a decree for the sale of the premises. The bond, mortgage, and decree were sold to Philip Hene, and by him assigned to the Bowery Savings Bank. In 1848 this bank filed a bill of revivor in the supreme court in equity against the trustees and Mrs. Dyett, to which none of the children were parties. Thereunder the sheriff sold the premises at auction to Leroy M. Wiley for $39,500. He refused to complete the purchase, on the ground that he would not acquire title in fee by the sale, and the deed thereunder, because the mortgage was a lien only on Mrs. Dyett’s life estate, and that her children then in esse were not bound by the decree of foreclosure or any sale thereunder. At this time Mrs. Dyett was 49 years old, and had four children; her husband had died in 1843; and, except this house and lot, she had no other-property.

Upon Wiley’s refusal to accept the title, the mortgagee readvertised the property for sale, and then the infant children, by their next friend, commenced a suit in equity to restrain the sale, asking that the sale should be carried into effect so as to vest the title in Wiley, the purchaser in fee simple, and that the purchase money should be applied and invested according to the rights and interests of the several parties. This action by the infant children was never tried, nor was any decree ever made thereon; but subsequent thereto an arrangement was made between Wiley, the purchaser, the mortgagee, Mrs.

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Bluebook (online)
19 N.Y.S. 19, 46 N.Y. St. Rep. 615, 64 Hun 635, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dyett-v-central-trust-co-nysupct-1892.